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In northern regions, society can be seriously interrupted by a prolonged electricity network blackout due to a winter storm that cuts off power, communication and road networks. Due to hard winter weather it is essential to enhance the resilience of society to avoid danger to life. This can be achieved by developing new models to enhance preparedness for coming disaster events and to support rescue and other authorities to focus their resources on the most vulnerable targets in actual cases of emergencies. This paper presents a part of the results of activities performed within the EU project ‘CRISMA – Modelling crisis management for improved action and preparedness’. It focuses on improved resilience by proposing a framework for systemic vulnerability and impact analyses. The described work is conceptually based on risk-hazard and socio-constructive approaches. It is illustrated by means of a scenario consisting of a prolonged blackout together with an extreme winter storm in northern Finland. Scenario components include the integrative analysis of rapidly cooling houses and exposed vulnerable people as well as estimations of the potential costs of the crisis situation. The model can be extended to handle passable routes and the deployment of available rescue and snow ploughing equipment.

Extreme winter storms in northern regions bring heavy snowfall, strong winds and cold weather. Winter storms accumulate snow on power lines, causing damage, power outages and communication breakdowns. They may disrupt society’s normal interactions, especially in sparsely populated areas, due to snow-blocked roads, isolating people and preventing rescue operations in cases of emergency. In the worst cases, when the electricity is cut off for long time, many houses are at risk of rapid cooling. Hence, people are in danger of hypothermia if they cannot move or be evacuated to warm and safe places. Foreign visitors may be even more vulnerable because of language problems and different safety cultures, including e.g. not knowing how to dress properly for cold weather This paper presents part of the results of activities performed within the EU project CRISMA “Modelling crisis management for improved action and preparedness”. It shows how vulnerability analyses are produced in the case of an extreme winter storm in northern Finland. The analysis is based both on risk-hazard and socio-constructive approaches, combined to achieve the most effective results for the use of rescue services and regional planning authorities.

Contingency planning is a significant challenge when dealing with rarely occurring cases. First of all, the situation related threats can be difficult to identify. Moreover, it is difficult to conclude what happens when multiple threats occur simultaneously. In this paper we introduce the idea of an application which allows seamless cooperation between many experts. In this paper we describe a computer based simulation application which is designed to support contingency planning - having resources available - in extreme winter condition. First we introduce the background of the simulation - sparsely populated areas in Northern Finland where long distances and extremely cold weather can make disturbance situations even more difficult to be normalized by authorities. Secondly we present the tools that are used to build up the application. Finally, we discuss what benefits the application offers for the authorities, preparedness planning and society.

Cities are tackling their economic, social and environmental challenges through smart city solutions. To demonstrate that these solutions achieve the desired impact, an indicator-based assessment system is needed. This paper presents the process of developing CITYkeys performance measurement system for target setting and monitoring. This European smart city indicator framework was developed by analyzing cities' needs, existing indicators and gaps.

In northern regions, society can be seriously interrupted by a prolonged electricity network blackout due to a winter storm that cuts off power, communication and road networks. Due to hard winter weather it is essential to enhance the resilience of society to avoid danger to life. This can be achieved by developing new models to enhance preparedness for coming disaster events and to support rescue and other authorities to focus their resources on the most vulnerable targets in actual cases of emergencies. This paper presents a part of the results of activities performed within the EU project 'CRISMA - Modelling crisis management for improved action and preparedness'. It focuses on improved resilience by proposing a framework for systemic vulnerability and impact analyses. The described work is conceptually based on risk-hazard and socio-constructive approaches. It is illustrated by means of a scenario consisting of a prolonged blackout together with an extreme winter storm in northern Finland. Scenario components include the integrative analysis of rapidly cooling houses and exposed vulnerable people as well as estimations of the potential costs of the crisis situation. The model can be extended to handle passable routes and the deployment of available rescue and snow ploughing equipment.